How about an opinion on THIS letter about VH1's bad taste show!?

[mugsy]

Hi all, I'm curious to see what you guys think of the email that I sent to Viacom, VH1's parent company, in regards to VH1's show "Behind Bars" where they feature prison inmates every week performing in front of their "peers" and the cameras. Keeping in mind, of course, that some of these people murdered and raped people and that's why they're in prison in the first place. AACCKK!!! I just don't understand where our society is headed. Anyway, please tell me what you think of the letter. If anyone else is interested in emailing them, their email addy is: [email protected] I found it on VH1's website, where I have been postin my disdain for this awful show. Ok, I'm done venting now, thanks in advance.... Here it is.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to express my disdain for Viacom's company VH1 and their poor taste. To give murderers and rapists the limelight and feature them on their own program goes beyond bad taste. It actually borders on immoral. I join Bill O'Reilly and the vast majority of others in denouncing this program. No longer will I EVER view ANYTHING on VH1. I am very pleased to see most of the major sponsors of this distasteful program have pulled their ads. While I find Don Imus' show in the morning to be my entertainment on my drive to work, I am considering boycotting it simply because he is employed by you, Viacom, who obviously condones this irresponsible and hateful behavior. Please be assured that I will do everything in my power, including emailing Mr. Imus, to make it hurt for you, Viacom, and VH1. I am hereby making my plea to your better judgement, to advise VH1 to pull "Behind Bars" from their lineup. I just wish the families of the victims and the victims themselves had some sort of recourse against Viacom and VH1 in this matter. These are the people who suffer from all of this. I'm sure everyone involved with this program would feel differently if one of their relatives had fallen prey to these monsters.

Thank you for taking this matter into consideration.

Molly Kendall

[Freckles]

Here's something along the same lines.
Serial killer turns artist.

[Soledad]

Hmmm...this is a sticky situation. Very complicated, indeed. I'd need to do more research on this, as I find Bill O'Reilly to be a horrible scaremonger who rarely reveals all the facts.

[mugsy]

OH trust me...I've watched video clips of the show and it's replusive to me. I just feel so badly for the victims' families who have to endure this. I realize that they don't have to watch, but just knowing that their relative's tragic death is being made a mockery by this inane idea of VH1. I'm sorry, but these people are in prison for a reason and they get air conditioned cells, weight rooms, libraries, tracks, cable tv, free medical care, and countless other perks being paid for by the taxpayers of America. It's no wonder why so many commit crimes again when they are released...why give up a great deal like that? And the scary part is, they'll tell you that. I've heard it myself. Whatever happened to prison being a punishment? I do like O'Reilly's idea for violent offenders....send them to work camps where they pound rocks all day, let them get their exercise that way! Oh well, I guess THAT'S never going to happen in THIS politically correct society. And my husband calls me a bleeding heart liberal! HAH! lol But, I guess I do have more liberal views than conservative! I was just raised that if you do the crime you do the time and accept the consequences of your actions and that there WILL be punishment if you do wrong. It's the same idea of taking corporal punishment out of schools. The kids have the run of the place because they know the teachers have no recourse. Like the lady from SCAN (my most hated organization) told a group of 5th graders....if anyone touches you in a way that you don't like, that's called child abuse. And don't think those kids went running home with that! Fortunately, there was a wise teacher in the room that set them straight pretty quickly.

Oh well, I'm done venting now on the ills of society! lol

[Soledad]

The issue of incarceration is very complicated. I'm actually a political researcher, and one of my areas is corrections. It's something new to me, and something I'm still learning about, but one thing I've realised is that it's not as easy as people would like it to be.

Most criminals will leave prison, now, I personally don't want people who are even more angry, more enraged, and more disconnected from society than they were beforehand. That's just ensuring that they'll recommit and most likely, more violently. I don't want that blood on my hands.

Prison management is a huge ordeal. There have been huge prison riots resulting in massive fatalities simply when the food being served is inhumane. People will react.

We live in a country (USA) where we took a stand against "cruel and unusual punishment", I for one, do not want that to be taken away.

Sorry, but I don't think prison is some sort of la-la land. I've visited relatives inside, and they're disgusting places where you relive the nightmares of your decisions daily. What makes people reoffend is that they've been disconnected from society from day one, and have no idea how to exist in a non-institutionalised lifestyle.

I'd rather have an in-depth look at these things, than do the sort of mob-mindset of barely feeding prisoners, making them work till they die of exhaustion, etc.

However, if this TV show is doing what you say it's doing, that to me is completely unacceptable.

[RockyRoad]

Wow, what idiots some people can be. I do not see why criminals get their own TV show either. That letter was really cool Mugsy! Wy do people who break the law get their own TV show?? People these days...*sigh*... I have seen the show as well. Bad girl I am, yup. I too feel bad for their families who have to suffer the embarassment of this and if a good person went to jail(for something like speeding a million times, I don't know!)their families would be worried sick about what is going on there!! Even though I really do not understand goverment and stuff yet I still think that is crazy.

[mugsy]

I too have, unfortunately, had to visit people in prison and THEY even said it wasn't as bad as it needed to be to dissuade people from offending or reoffending. My biggest gripe with treatment of prisoners is that they throw everyone into the mix and you end up next to whomever you end up next to. I had a relative who was in for DWI (and never hurt anyone) and had a murderer on one side of him and a rapist on the other. I think that violent offenders need to be kept totally away from the rest of the prison population. As far as violent offenders go, I don't think they should be given a chance to go back out into society.

[Soledad]

And my husband calls me a bleeding heart liberal! HAH!

Next time he says that, tell him that when the heart stops bleeding, it dies.

[Aspen and Misty]

Originally posted by mugsy
As far as violent offenders go, I don't think they should be given a chance to go back out into society.

I agree, why give them the chance to do it again! They did it once. Personally I think the goverment and stuff needs to open there eyes. Do they not care at all? How would they feel if there child was attacked by someone and that person only got 1 or 2 years in jail? I'm sure they would have a say or two about that, but as long as its not there child do they care? NOPE.

Ash

[Soledad]

I always get sort of annoyed when discussions take this turn. I spend my days with politicians, and I will tell you that they aren't just out to make your life hell. They work HARD and they have to think A LOT about a variety of things, negotiate and compromise and still not make anyone happy. It's the most thankless job ever. They get people visiting them, writing them, and phoning them ALL day telling them how they have no heart, blah blah blah. They're people too, and they have feelings, and for a large part families of their own. Think about things a little more in depth before you judge. Nothing is as simple as we'd like it to be.

So, we lock up EVERY violent offender for life? Please, explain to me how you would do this, especially from an economic point of view. To say nothing about human rights, etc.

[mugsy]

I didn't mean to leave all in there for life! (If you get my drift!)

[Soledad]

Well, you did say:

As far as violent offenders go, I don't think they should be given a chance to go back out into society.

That sounds like keeping them in there for life, to me.

It's all very well and good that people want to bemoan the ills of modern society, but then none of them actually get off their butts to vote. Not you, Mugsy, but others. I get sick of oversimplified debates.

[mugsy]

OH Soledad, you hit a chord with the vote thing. I have lectured my 8th graders to death about the importance of voting. We've spent many a class period talking about why you should vote. My first comment to them is: If you don't vote, then shut up because you have no right to bemoan the situation when you do nothing to make it better. Then I tell them that if they don't vote that they may very well being giving up the freedoms that they so easily enjoy because they've given up their right of government by the people. I've convinced a lot of them. I had some who said they went home and yelled at their parents for not voting! OOPS!! I expected some nasty phone calls on that one, but I guess lazy in one area can translate to lazy in others! lol

[Ann]

I haven't seen this show since VH1 doesn't exist in Sweden, so I really can't judge. But however, prison is hell and a lot of the people in there are innocent. That's all I'm gonna say on the subject since I haven't seen the show.

[Nomilynn]

What Ann said was something that I thought of too.. sometimes people go to prison who didn't really commit the crime, but other than saying that I don't really have a solution.

I think it is in bad taste to give criminals a TV show, mostly because of the families and victims.. it isn't fair to them because it's taking away their choices like privacy or moving on with their lives.